PROCEDURE FOR APPOINTMENT OF THE NEW COMMISSION

by Altiero Spinelli

SUMMARY: Pursuant to a proposal by the British Conservative, Mr Jackson, the European Parliament considers - during an "emergency debate" - the Council's attitude regarding the appointment of the new Commission, under the presidency of Mr Jacques Delors, of France, which will replace the Commission under the presidency of Gaston Thorn in January. "Speeches in European Parliament, 1976-1986", Pier Virgilio Dastoli Editor. (EP, 13 September 1984)

Madame President, I want first of all to express my amazement at the fact that something as important as the appointment of the next Commission should be treated in this hole - and - corneer manner, and that recourse had to be had to an emergency debate which had to be decided yesterday, because otherwise the whole thing would have been ignored.

The appointment of the Commission is not something that happens automatically or something on which we can content ourselves, as Mr Hänsch was saying, with a resolution which we voted four years ago which the Council and Governments have shown little inclination to take into account.

I feel that the resolution by Mr Jackson and others is the one that should be adopted, because we have to point out - I shall not be repeating here the arguments advanced by Mr Jackson - some of the things that are wrong with the way the Commission operates.

But I would add hat this resolution is incomplete and that we should include in it the contents of Amendments Nos 2 and 3, which, I see, are down in my name alone but in fact are also signed by Mrs Boot of the EPP, Mr Tognoli of the Socialist Group and Mr Gawronski of the Liberal Group. In these two amendments we stress two points which are part of this Parliament's philosophy, which are certainly not inventions of the moment, and which must be taken into account.

The first is that the President of the Commission should be entitled to present to the Council his own proposals before the Council appoints the Commission. The Governments gave an undertaking in this sense to Mr Jenkins, but they did not honour it. Now we want it to be honoured, because the present haphazard method of appointing the Commission is bad. Each Government makes its own nomination or nominations which are then blindly accepted by the other Governments, without anyone having the slightest view of the Commission as a whole. That overall view can only come from the President of the Commission. The Governments should make the nominations, but they should first be acquainted with an overall plan for the Commission that should have at least

some semblance of structuring.

The second point concerns the formal request which had already been formulated in 1980 in paragraph 7 of the Rey report, but which must be renewed today. When the Council, having promised to consult us before appointing the President, in fact only informed us of the appointment after it was made, this Parliament asked - and this is the gist of paragraph 7 of the Rey resolution that before taking up office the Commission should consult Parliament on its policies and obtain its approval.

I feel that if Parliament has the least respect for its own role, it should now vote the resolution with the two amendements. And I can only add that I am very surprised at the attitude of the Socialist Group, which at the time voted for the Rey resolution.